Panama Canal to cut maritime traffic again due to El Nino

The Panama Canal is planning further reductions to maritime traffic through the waterway after already slashing numbers due to the El Nino weather pattern, the canal’s administrator said Monday.

Panama has declared a nationwide emergency over El Nino, a phenomenon developing over the Pacific Ocean that is affecting worldwide weather patterns and pushing up global temperatures.

These conditions have provoked a severe drought in Central America, which poses huge problems for the interoceanic Panama Canal.

About 5% of global trade passes through the waterway, which cannot function without the water it uses to power its locks that lift and lower ships at the start and end of their crossing.

Canal authorities cut daily transits from 36 to 32 on Sept 4 to preserve water and will slash them further to “an average of 29.5 transits” a day from October, according to a draft budget submitted to Panama’s parliament.

The approved budget “ensures that the canal continues to operate safely, continuously, efficiently and profitably,” said minister for canal Affairs Jose Ramon Ycaza.

This year’s El Nino is expected to be the strongest since record-keeping began four decades ago.

In 2023, the phenomenon forced a reduction in daily transits through the canal from 38 to 22.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has pushed up traffic through the channel given the standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas.